FHOTO OF KNIFE CHEF

what is consomme?

Consomme is a clear, strong broth often served as the first course of French meals. Consomme is made from stock but is clarified by straining the stock. It can be made from traditional meat stocks or from vegetables. Stock itself is made from lengthy cooking, particularly of vegetables or the bones of meat in order to yield a broth.
Traditionally consomme also has egg whites added to it when the stock is cold. The consomme is then reheated and impurities are theoretically supposed to stick to the egg whites. Once the consomme is fully hot, the egg whites tend to form foam at the top. This is pushed to the side and the consomme is then strained again. The result is a clear golden to brown soup.

Double consomme is reduced by half of the original broth, which generally yields a very highly flavored final soup. This takes a little longer to prepare, but many gourmets find the experience well worth it. The rich and intense flavor of a double consomme is hard to match.
A traditional French dish with consomme as a base is Consomme Brunoise. After the final straining simmered leeks, carrots and celery are added to the soup and presented. Though one can use a vegetable stock, it is usually most often made with beef or chicken stock. Directions for serving Consomme Brunoise also suggest warming the bowls before ladling in the finished soup.
A very popular recipe including consomme is French Onion Soup. Sautéed onions are added to rich brown beef consomme. Oven safe bowls are covered with grated cheese, preferably swiss cheeses like Jarlsburg or Gruyere, and a large crouton often tops the dish. The soup is then finished in the oven so the cheese melts and turns golden. The result is greatly appreciated and is a staple of many fine restaurants throughout the US and Europe.

What Is Nutrition? Why Is Nutrition Important?

Nutrition, nourishment, or aliment, is the supply of materials - food - required by organisms and cells to stay alive. In science and human medicine, nutrition is the science or practice of consuming and utilizing foods.

In hospitals, nutrition may refer to the food requirements of patients, including nutritional solutions delivered via an IV (intravenous) or IG (intragastric) tube.

Nutritional science studies how the body breaks food down (catabolism) and repairs and creates cells and tissue (anabolism) - catabolism and anabolism = metabolism. Nutritional science also examines how the body responds to food. In other words, "nutritional science investigates the metabolic and physiological responses of the body to diet".

As molecular biology, biochemistry and genetics advance, nutrition has become more focused on the steps of biochemical sequences through which substances inside us and other living organisms are transformed from one form to another - metabolism and metabolic pathways.

Nutrition also focuses on how diseases, conditions and problems can be prevented or lessened with a healthy diet.

Nutrition also involves identifying how certain diseases, conditions or problems may be caused by dietary factors, such as poor diet (malnutrition), food allergies, metabolic diseases, etc.

MENU

A list of commands or options from which you can choose. Most applications now have a menu-driven component. You can choose an item from the menu by highlighting it and then pressing the Enter or Return key, or by simply pointing to the item with a mouse and clicking one of the mouse buttons.
The antithesis of a menu-driven program is a command-driven system, in which you must explicitly enter the command you want rather than choose from a list of possible commands. Menu-driven systems are simpler and easier to learn but are generally not as flexible as command-driven systems, which lend themselves more naturally to interaction with programs.
There are several different types of menus:

pop-up menu: A menu that appears temporarily when you click the mouse button on a selection. Once you make a selection from a pop-up menu, the menu usually disappears.

cascading menu: A submenu that opens when you select a choice from another menu.

pull-down menu : A special type of pop-up menu that appears directly beneath the command you selected.

moving-bar menu : A menu in which options are highlighted by a bar that you can move from one item to another. Most menus are moving-bar menus.

menu bar : A menu arranged horizontally. Each menu option is generally associated with another pull-down menu that appears when you make a selection.

tear-off menu : A pop-up menu that you can move around

WHAT IS COOKING?

Photo © Danilo Alfaro

What is Cooking?

Cooking is one of those everyday words that everyone knows. But what does it really mean? Is reheating leftovers cooking? How about making an emulsified salad dressing? Scrambling eggs? Baking cookies? At its most basic, cooking means applying heat to food. But cooking is as much about the ways heat changes the food as it is about the heat itself. That's because heating food does more than just make it hotter. It changes the food in other ways, too.

Proteins

The proteins in food (like in meats, poultry and eggs) become firmer. This is why the liquid interior of an egg gets hard when you boil it, and why a well-done steak is tougher than one cooked medium-rare. Interestingly, other proteins, namely the collagens that make up cartilage and other connective tissues in meats, can be made to break down by heating them in certain ways, specifically through moist heat cooking methods. This is why tough cuts of meat like lamb shanks or oxtails can become so incredibly tender when braised slowly. Cooking also causes proteins to lose moisture, typically via evaporation in the form of steam. This loss of moisture then causes protein-rich food to shrink, as we see with burgers that appear to deflate when cooked on the grill.

Sugars & Starches

Carbohydrates like sugars and starches are also transformed by heating. Sugars turn brown, as we see when we caramelize the tops of a crème brûlée. The browning of bread when we bake it is caused by the caramelization of the carbohydrates. Starches tend to act like sponges, soaking up water and expanding in size, as when pasta noodles expand when we cook them.

Fats & Fiber

Fats, such as butter and oils, liquefy, and eventually start to smoke when they get too hot. The fibers in vegetables and fruits soften and break down, which is why a cooked carrot is softer than a raw one.

Other Changes

Cooking can affect the color of foods, too. Green vegetables first brighten when cooked, but they eventually take on a drab olive hue if they're cooked for too long. Cooking food causes other, less obvious, changes, too. Nutrients like vitamins can be destroyed or leached out, literally cooked away. Anytime you boil vegetables, some nutrients naturally dissolve into the cooking water or into the air via steam. Flavors can be lost in this same way, too. When you smell the aroma of food cooking, what you're smelling are the flavor compounds evaporating into the air. And if they're in the air, then they're not in the food.

PROTEIN,CARBOHYDRATES & FAT

proteins which you find in meat, fish, beans and stuff

carbohydrates – sugar is one and  you find others in bread, cereals and vegetables


fat – I guess you know what that is. You find it in fried foods, cheese, butter, margarine and oils


Almost all the food you eat has some of the Big Three in it. But there are other things too which you need to eat in much smaller amounts. They are vitamins and minerals. You need small amounts of both.
I’m sure you know about vitamins. There are quite a few and most of them have letters: vitamins A, B, C, D and E.

And minerals? One is salt. Other important ones are calcium and iron.
Anything else? Well yes. Scientists have discovered that all kinds of other things in fresh fruit and vegetables are very useful in helping stay healthy. This is part of the reason why it’s a good idea for people to eat lots of these foods. They contain useful things like flavonoids as well as lots of vitamins. They also have stuff in them that people can’t digest very well called fibre (so do grains like oats) which turn out to be useful too because they help prevent nasty diseases like cancer.

What is food?

     

Everyone knows that. You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t. For me, it’s very simple: food is fish. I just love fish (especially eating them!). I wonder what your favourite food is? Let me guess… hamburgers? Ice cream? Candy bars? Well that’s probably more likely than raw carrots or garlic.

So anyway, what exactly is food? Let’s look at what it’s made of.
Food (which really includes many types of drinks too – like milk shakes and cola – but not water) is made up of nutrients. These are the things which give you energy or help build up your body as you grow.

the prinEveryone knows that. You wouldn’t be here if you didn’tcipal means used to thicken sauces

INTRODUCTION OF VEGETABLE

The noun vegetable usually means an edible plant or part of a plant other than a sweet fruit or seed. This typically means the leaf, stem, or root of a plant.

However, the word is not scientific, and its meaning is largely based on culinary and cultural tradition. Therefore, the application of the word is somewhat arbitrary and subjective. For example, some people consider mushrooms to be vegetables,while others consider them a separate food category.

Some vegetables can be consumed raw, some may be eaten raw or cooked, and some must be cooked in order to be edible. Vegetables are most often cooked in savory or salty dishes. However, a few vegetables are often used in desserts and other sweet dishes, such as rhubarb pie and carrot cake.

As an adjective, the word vegetable is used in scientific and technical contexts with a different and much broader meaning, namely of "related to plants" in general, edible or not — as in vegetable matter, vegetable kingdom, vegetable origin, The meaning of "vegetable" as "plant grown for food" was not established until the 18th century.

BASIC WHITE STOCK

 

How To Make White Stock

The procedure for making white stock differs from that of brown stock mainly in that rather than roasting the bones beforehand, they are blanched instead. Blanching helps get rid of the impurities in the bones that can cloud the stock. Note that a white stock can be made using chicken bones, veal bones or beef bones.

Difficulty: Average

Time Required: 4-6 hours

Here's How:

1. Rinse bones in cold water.
2. Transfer the bones to a heavy-bottomed stockpot.
3. Add enough cold water to the pot to completely cover the bones. Figure about a quart of water for each pound of bones.
4. Bring pot to a boil.
5. Drain and rinse bones.
6. Return the blanched bones to the pot and again cover with fresh, cold water.
7. Bring pot to a boil, then immediately lower the heat to a simmer.
8. Skim off the scum that rises to the surface.
9. Add chopped carrots, celery and onion, (also called mirepoix) to the pot along with a sachet d'epices; tie the sachet string to the stockpot handle for easy retrieval later.
10. Continue to simmer the stock and skim the impurities that rise to the surface. Liquid will evaporate, so make sure there's always enough water to cover the bones.
11. After 4 to 6 hours, remove the pot from the heat.
12. Strain the stock through a sieve lined with a few layers of cheesecloth. Cool the stock quickly, using an ice bath if necessary.

Tips:

1. The best bones to use for making stock are ones with a lot of cartilage, such as the so-called "knuckle" bones in the various leg joints. The bones of younger animals also have more cartilage, which is why veal bones are so desirable.
2. Always start with cold water when making stock. It will help extract more collagen from the bones, which will produce a stock with more body.
3. Don't let the stock boil, but rather, keep it at a gentle simmer. Also, don't stir the stock while it simmers. Just let it do its thing. All you need to worry about is skimming the scum off the top, and possibly adding more water if the liquid level drops too low.

What You Need:

• Beef, veal or chicken bones
• Heavy-bottomed stockpot
• Carrots, celery and onion
• Sachet
• Mesh strainer
• Cheesecloth

BASIC BROWN STOCK

 

How To Make Brown Stock

The procedure for making brown stock differs from that of white stock mainly in that instead of blanching the bones beforehand, they are roasted instead. Roasting brings out more color and flavor. The mirepoix is roasted too, for the same reason. Also, some sort of tomato product is used with brown stocks, again for adding color and flavor, but also because the acid in the tomato helps dissolve the connective tissues in the bones, thus aiding in the formation of gelatin. For more details, check out this illustrated step-by-step guide to making brown stock.

Difficulty: Average

Time Required: 5-7 hours

Here's How:

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
2. Place beef or veal bones in a heavy bottomed roasting pan. Drizzle them with a bit of vegetable oil if you like.
3. Roast bones for about half an hour.
4. Add mirepoix to the roasting pan and continue roasting for another half an hour. Toward the end of the roasting, add the tomato product.
5. When the bones are thoroughly browned, remove the roasting pan from the oven and transfer the bones to a heavy-bottomed stockpot.
6. Add enough cold water to the pot to completely cover the bones. Figure about a quart of water for each pound of bones.
7. Bring pot to a boil, then immediately lower the heat to a simmer.
8. Skim off the scum that rises to the surface.
9. Add the roasted mirepoix to the pot along with a sachet d'epices; tie the sachet string to the stockpot handle for easy retrieval later.
10. Continue to simmer the stock and skim the impurities that rise to the surface. Liquid will evaporate, so make sure there's always enough water to cover the bones.
11. After anywhere from 4 to 6 hours, once the stock has developed a rich, brown color, remove the pot from the heat.
12. Strain the stock through a sieve lined with a few layers of cheesecloth. Cool the stock quickly, using an ice bath if necessary.

Tips:

1. The best bones to use for making stock are ones with a lot of cartilage, such as the so-called "knuckle" bones in the various leg joints. The bones of younger animals also have more cartilage, which is why veal bones are so desirable.
2. Always start with cold water when making stock. It will help extract more collagen from the bones, which will produce a stock with more body.
3. Don't let the stock boil, but rather, keep it at a gentle simmer. Also, don't stir the stock while it simmers. Just let it do its thing. All you need to worry about is skimming the scum off the top, and possibly adding more water if the liquid level drops too low.

What You Need:

• Beef or veal bones
• Heavy-bottomed roasting pan
• Heavy-bottomed stockpot
• Tomato product such as puree or paste
• Mirepoix
• Sachet
• Mesh strainer
• Cheesecloth

History of sushi

Sushi, a Japanese dish considered a delicacy and food enjoyed by the cultured. Funny that it started out as a fast food in Japan, because of its quick popularity and easiness to make. A simple round sandwich of sorts, made with rice, fish or sashimi, and circled with nori. An enjoyable combination. However the fish ingredients cause controversy because of its sometimes raw factor, and the overfished marine life.

MENU AND PRICE (FOOD)

JAPANESE MENU

APPETIZER

1. MURASAKI TOFU GARDEN SALAD 11.80
Lightly Fried Cubes of Tofu Served on a Bed of Fresh, Crisp Mixed Greens with
Choice of Murasaki Salad Dressing.
2. FRESH SEAWEED SALAD 11.00
Fresh, Crisp Mixed Greens with Healthy and Vitamin Rich Wakame.                                    3. KING CRAB ONIGARA YAKI 18.50
Broiled Alaska King Crab 7oz., with a Spicy Dressing
4. SHRIMP COCKTAIL MURASAKI STYLE 17.50
Jumbo Shrimp Served with Wasabi Cocktail Sauce

SOUPS

1. CALDO  VERDO  SOUP  9.80
2.MINESTRONE  SOUP  11.50                                                                                                    . 3.MISO SOUP 8.50
Soybean Broth with Wakame, Tofu and Scallions
4. CLEAR SOUP 7.80
Chicken Broth with Mushrooms, Wakame, Tofu and Scallions.
Garnished with Fried Onions

MAIN COURSE

1. CHICKEN TERIYAKI 27.00
Grilled Breast and Thigh Meat and Sauteed Vegetables with Teriyaki Sauce
2. SHOGAYAKI 25.80
Pork Tenderloin, Thinly Sliced and SautÈed in Murasaki Ginger Sauce                                3. BEEF TENDERLOIN 28.40
8oz Cooked to Order with Sauteed Vegetables with Teriyaki Sauce
4. BEEF TERIYAKI 24.50
N.Y. Cut Strip Loin (8 oz) and Sauteed Vegetables withTeriyaki Sauce

DESSERT

1. VANILLA ICE CREAM 6.40
2. KAKIGORI ( Shaved Ice ) WITH RED BEANS 6.00                                                                3.GREEN TEA ICE CREAM  7.80                                                                                                      4. GINGER ICE CREAM 8.00